Cleaning compositions for hard surfaces can be used in a variety of settings, including household or automotive applications. An effective cleaning composition, especially with respect to automotive applications, should be capable of removing a wide variety of materials including inorganic and organic soils. Typical inorganic soils include clay, cement, industrial dust, sand, products from acid rain condensation, rock forming minerals residue and the like. Typical organic soils include those derived from pollen, rubber, asphalt, oil residue, insect residue, tree sap, bird droppings and the like.
Traditional cleaning compositions typically suffer from a number of deficiencies. For example, such compositions generally contain the use of a high volatile organic compound (“VOC”) content. However, it has been suggested that lowering the VOC content of traditional cleaning compositions limits their effectiveness and/or range of applications (e.g., are effective for use in light duty applications and not for removing organic soils from hard surfaces in automotive applications). Although they are satisfactory in removing inorganic soils from hard surfaces, traditional cleaners for automotive applications, are often unsatisfactory in removing organic soils. Further, cleaners that have a high VOC content may cause damage to the paint finish. Simply lowering the VOC content produces other deficiencies such as limited cleaning effectiveness especially for organic soils on hard surfaces.